stance in terms of you'd call it a defensive intelligence briefing where you're trying to defend the location and all the individuals moving around there. that would include online or in person threats. they would have a quick reaction plan for those. >> clint watts, thank you so much. good to see you. that wraps up the hour for me. you can reach me on twitter and instagram and watch highlights from today's show online. thank you for the privilege of your time. andrea mitchell picks up with more news right now. and right now on "andrea mitchell reports," former president trump flying from new jersey to florida today to face an arraignment in federal court tomorrow. 37 counts of allegedly retaining national defense and classified documents after he left office then hiding them from the fbi and his own lawyers instead of turning them over. trump blasting jack smith since

friday, calling smith a fascist tyrant, maniac and other derogatory names even calling bill barr a gutless tig. >> if even half is true, then he's toast. he's not a victim here. he was totally wrong. >> this as most of the 2024 republicans and trump senate allies fell into line behind the former president despite the implications for national security. >> he did not commit espionage. he's not a spy. he's overcharged. >> and joining us today, democratic virginia congresswoman and former cia officer, abigail spanburger. former nato commander and michael beschloss. meanwhile, russia has arrested another american, accusing michael travis leak on charges

of drug dealing. accusations he denies. >> good day, i'm andrea mitchell in washington. a defiant former president trump on the attack against his accusers before heading to court tomorrow if his schedule holds. first, he needs to name a new florida attorney. at the arraignment, he's supposed to hear the charges against him, have his fingerprints and mug shot taken and enter a plea. his attacks against jack smith have only escalated at political rallies on saturday. >> this vicious persecution is a travesty of justice. biden is trying to jail his leading political opponent. you have to maniac, i call him a deranged person, jack smith. he's deranged. >> joining me now from miami, florida, nbc news capitol hill

correspondent, garrett haake and andrew weissman, lead prosecutor in the mueller investigation. garrett, you've been covering donald trump. set the scene for us today and tomorrow. has the former president explained why he held on to those boxes and if you can, what we know or don't know about whether he's hired a new council down there. >> i'll get to that in a minute, but first, the former president has turned the defiance up to 11 with a new social media post. he's bringing back lock her up by saying if he's elected, he's going to appoint a special prosecutor of his own to get the most corrupt president of all time, joe biden. it's an escalation from over the weekend in which the former president's attacks have gotten more bigger and more personal in the attacks on jack smith now

saying the quiet part out loud. that if he is re-elected as president, he will appoint a special prosecutor to go after joe biden. this after his allies spent the weekend saying such prosecutions are inappropriate and represent a double standard and were not the things donald trump did when he was president because he doesn't believe in political retribution against his allies. let's rewind to this weekend where i did try to ask the former president one question that to me wasn't answered in this lengthy indictment. why did he try so hard to hold on to all this information? here's how he responded to that question. >> all those documents at mar-a-lago? >> the documents, whole thing is a witch hunt, a disgrace. should have never happened. we did nothing wrong whatsoever. we did absolutely nothing wrong. take a look at the presidential records act. we did it by the book.

perfect. >> now if you look at the presidential records act, you'll find it makes very clear that presidents have to separate their personal and their professional papers before they leave office but andrea, that's part of the defense that donald trump and his allies want to make, that this should not be an espionage case. this is about presidential records he had the right to have. to make those arguments, he's going to need to replace the two attorneys on his team who resigned last week. he's going to find something to lead this team in florida. it's unclear whether he's done that with a little more than 24 hours to go until his arraignment is scheduled to begin. >> and andrew, let's go through this. there's the judge. she's a trump appointee. that's not the relevant issue. judges of whatever political stripe once they're put in, they're the federal judge. when she was first assigned to this case, now having been assigned again, she was twice

severely overturned and criticized. in fact, rebuked by the conservative 11th circuit court of appeals for the way she handled it for going beyond her mandate. so there's no question as to how, whether she's biased, pro trump or simply not a good judge and doesn't know the law. >> i'm glad you started there with who appointed her because i agree. that's not the issue. there are many judges appointed by democrats and republicans who do their job. that includes judges appointed by donald trump. indeed, the 11th circuit that reversed in very scathing language canon had a number of judges appointed by donald trump and they did their job and reversed her. as well they should have. there are two things she wrote that are troublesome to me and i think meet the standard for

recusal which is impartially made reasonably be questioned. that's the standard. one is that she said that donald trump is entitled to deference because of his former position. the 11th circuit found that is antithetical to the rule of law in this country. i think it violates her oath of office to treat everyone equally. the other is that she treated the classified documents found in the search i think quite cavalierly and she was reversed on that ground. that's very much the issue here in this case, which is the two defendants treatment across classified documents. so it remains to be seen what's going to happen on that front and what the doj strategy will be with respect to her and whether she will recuse or whether the chief judge at the district court of court of appeals level might take action in light of her prior rulings.

>> let me ask you a couple of key points in any trial and particularly in this trial. in terms of the evidence and some of the rulings that she might make. first of all, she could really delay. she could delay all of her decision making along the way. and push this thing into the general election territory where it would be potentially fatal to the prosecution or to any outcome. being overturned if he's elected. but the piece of this is decision she makes during the jury selection, decisions she makes on motions to dismiss, on whether the trump attorney's notes of the piercing of the lawyer client privilege was appropriately decided by the judge the federal judge in d.c. because if all of that evidence is removed, there's still a case but not nearly as strong a case. am i correct here? >> so, first, a district judge

has enormous discretion and she could essentially almost have a pocket veto on the case by delaying it until after the republican nomination or even the general election. i think if she were to do that, i think the doj would appeal and do sort of a writ of man dams. an appeal to the 11th circuit. there they might seek her recusal. certainly a faster date. that's one of the ways i think she would do a disservice to this country where people are entitled to hear the evidence and weigh it for themselves and to have a decision one way or the other. whether acquittal or conviction. as to what happened here. the one thing i can assure you, however, is on the point about evan cork ran, while she has a lot of power to decide what comes in and out, that decision is what's called law of the case. that was litigated fully by donald trump and the government before a different judge, barrel

howell, the then chief judge of the washington, d.c. district judge court and she, howell was affirmed. there is no way to legally change that decision. if the, canon were to try to do that, she would be appealed and that would definitely be reversed. that's thing i would not worry about. there's plenty to worry about, but that's one i would not worry about. >> what about this potential blip of the former president not having hired a miami bar attorney. there was a member of his previous team still down in florida we thought, but if he asks for delay in the arraignment, is that possible because he doesn't have an attorney? that would seem highly inappropriate for a very wealthy defendant. >> so, i think my experience in federal court is that should not

be a reason for delay. that doesn't mean that canon is going to do that. but in the federal system, a lawyer who is barred even somewhere else, they've passed the bar in another state, they could be admitted by the trial judge at least for the purposes of standing up in the arraignment. so i don't think that should be a bar to going forward. todd blanch, who is a respected lawyer, should be able to appear at the arraignment. >> all right. and andrew, as we've been sitting here, split screen, there has been donald trump's plane in newark about to take off to head the florida. he's going to stay overnight at his doral club, not at mar-a-lago. it's closer in miami to the courthouse and the security arrangements have been put in place down there. thanks so much to both of you.

and how serious was the threat to national security after president trump took classified documents to mar-a-lago? former cia officer and intelligence committee member, abigail spanberger joins me next when andrea mitchell is back in just 60 seconds. stay with us right here on msnbc. seconds. stay with us right here on msnbc. night heartburn acid prevention with just one pill a day. choose acid prevention. choose nexium. - this is our premium platinum coverage map and this is consumer cellular's map. - i don't see the difference, do you? - well, that one's purple. - [announcer] get the exact same coverage as the nation's leading carrier. starting at $20. consumer cellular. i struggled with cpap every night.

but now that i got the inspire implant, it's making me think of doing other things i've been putting off. like removing that tattoo of your first wife's name. inspire. learn more and view important safety information at inspiresleep.com. the bombshell on friday details how former president trump allegedly placed national security secrets this jeopardy by taking classified documents to mar-a-lago specifically saying they included information regarding defense and weapons capabilities of both the united states and foreign countries according to the indictment. united states nuclear programs, potential vulnerabilities of the united states and its allies to military attack and plans for possible retaliation in response to a foreign attack. as pictures show the documents were stored haphazardly in

various locations at mar-a-lago including inside a bathroom. also on the stage, in a ballroom trafficked by my people. joining me now is abigail spanburger of virginia who serves on the intelligence committee. you've worked in the cia. what was your first reaction when you saw the pictures? the ballroom stage where people were coming and going. the bathroom. the shower. the documents that were spread over the floor at one point. we can show you a series of pictures here. these all from the indictment. and in the indictment, donald trump discussing iran war plans. how does this look to national security and the way our allies view us, the five closest allies who share very, very sensitive intelligence. >> as you were mentioning, these documents were spread across a

building, bathroom, stages, and without any security precautions. as a former cia officer, i used to collect the information, write up the intelligence reports that would be source material for the finished reports that the former president so cavalierly stored in boxes at his home. now the precaution, protocols we had at cia, everything gets locked up. documents, classified information gets stored in a system, stored in a safe which is stored in a skiff. the precautions we took to safeguard america's secrets and planning. the information provided to us by our partners and allies. those precautions were extraordinary to the lives of our service members.

to the, our plans and intentions and the fact that it would be just haphazardly strewn across the mar-a-lago resort is just unthinkable. >> and what about the fact that i mean, there's a lot lindsey graham is saying he's not a spy. the espionage doesn't only involve spying. it involves loosely handling national defense information. that's the charge here. >> anyone who has access to our nation's secrets has an extraordinary responsibility to protect those secrets. that is engrained in us on day one when we enter cia. when i was a former cia officer, here in the halls of congress when we enter and on the intelligence community, i have access to an array of classified information.

the reporting that would have been in these boxes, the information, is information that will keep our country safe or make us vulnerable. depending upon who has it. the information in those boxes, we're talking about the capabilities that we as a nation have. we don't want that out there possibly you know, accessible to others. the information that we know about foreign nations and their capabilities. their war planning. their nuclear capacity. we don't want people to know what we do know and we don't want them to see the intelligence reporting on it. it is vitally important that anyone with the responsibility of access to classified information do everything required of us by law and by duty to keep that information safe and as outlined in this indictment, the former president of the united states did not do that. >> and what about a number of your colleagues, their knee jerk

reactions to all this, to attack the prosecutor the way trump is, to attack joe biden and to say it's the same as hillary clinton, joe biden, mike pence. well, they're not going after mike pence in the same way. the difference here is that these 31 specific counts, these counts had nothing to do with what 37 counts that they had nothing to do with more than 100 other of these documents that were held and retained by him. so these are only the specific documents that were kept after the subpoena and actually curated version of these, of what was held after he had defied a subpoena and according to their evidence at least, moved things around and you know, lied to his own attorneys and tried to play hide and seek with the fbi.

>> that's right. this goes far beyond even possessing these documents which in and of itself is stunning to me. this goes to the next step of when asked to return documents so that they could be kept safe so that they could be outside of a potential you know, vulnerability for others to gain access to them so they could be stored as they were supposed to be. that the as outlined in this indictment, the president joined with others to hide those documents. to obscure those documents. to refuse to give those documents back and that is absolutely unbelievable that someone who understands or should understand the responsibility he has to those documents and as is highlighted in the indictment, there's alleged recordings that detail him explaining that he understands. that he understands that he, as a former president, doesn't have the right to share that information and indeed is sharing it.

so it is many steps beyond inappropriately retaining documents. it's inappropriately retaining documents then being part of an effort to not give them back, lie to federal investigators about it and to do so at the detriment to our national security and the safety and security of our service members whose lives will be on the line if that information of our capability and capacity and potential war planning ever gets out into the public. >> thank you so much. we should point out that one of the other charges, one of the other accusations they've been making, which is that it is totally political. democratic presidents went after a former democratic national security adviser. charged him as well as two cia directors for mishandling documents. and moving on. the northeast is facing a traffic nightmare after part of interstate 95 completely collapsed in philadelphia on

sunday morning. an elevated section of the heavily traveled roadway buckled when a tanker carrying gasoline crashed and caught fire and completely melted a northbound section of the roadway. no injuries or fatalities have been reported and officials say that section of the interstate will have to be closed for months. transportation secretary pete buttigieg warning that the shutdown will have a significant impact on the region's transportation and trade. next, standing strong. trump's base unmoved by the indictment. so will his rivals be able to take down the front-runner? next on "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. next on "andrea mitchell repos"rt on msnbc.

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most of trump's political rivals came to his defense this weekend parroting his claims of a political prosecution. a new poll shows why they're so reluctant to criticize the former president. 61% of gop voters said after the indictment, their view on trump remains unchanged and 14% say the charges only bolster their view of the former president. a majority saying they're concerned the indictment is politically motivated. joining me now, tim miller, and

jonathan lemire, host of msnbc's way too early. we just heard from tim scott moments ago in spartanburg, south carolina, saying we have to have a justice system where the lady of justice is blindfolded. talked about a double standard, et cetera. tim, ron desantis is also leading into the witch hunt market. instead of talking about trump over the weekend, he talked about hillary clinton and said this. let's watch. >> i think there needs to be one standard of justice in this country. let's enforce it on everybody and make sure we all know the rules. you can't have one faction of society weaponizing the power of the state against factions it doesn't like. >> so tim, is he just tapping into something that republicans in this country who have been listening to donald trump for years deeply feel? that there's an unfair bias against republicans?

>> the republican base voters, if you just listen to them in interviews or look at these poll results, you'll see they feel deeply aggrieved. they think they're being targeted. by cancel culture. the department of justice. most of this is nonsense, of course. most of this is driven by the media ecosystem they're living in feeding them this constant diet of grievance, but that is what they believe and there's nobody that's been willing to you know, kind ofd have more of a reality check about what's happening here. political indictments of people from both parties go back as long as time. and so you know, this was a grand jury in south florida which i can't imagine would have been that unbiased, but that's not an okay thing to say if you want to win a republican primary. i understand desantis' strategy.

what if you're doing if you're tim scott and losing by 55 points and the leading candidate gets indicted and you criticize the department of justice. to me, that's not a serious campaign. >> and jonathan, you know, deal with sort of the what aboutism? joe biden in that case. aside from what he had from his vice president years. they keep conflating that with senate records from the 33 plus years, whatever, which he is entirely able to take and give to the university of delaware, as he did. and the hillary clinton issue. zbl yeah, the republicans here are looking for any sort of cud yule they can. sort of parsing the facts, it's just not quite true. it was donald trump who was the loudest critic of hillary

clinton during the 2016 campaign for her handling of classified information. he would say it night after night after night at these rallies. i was there covering that campaign. it was one of his greatest hits. let's remember it was followed up by chants of lock her up. he said how serious this was and vowed to handle classified material more safely while in office. now we know he refused to give it back, charged with obstruction. documents he would keep in the ballroom and bathroom even at mar-a-lago. so yes, they point to hillary clinton. to president biden. the other thing of course is they're saying that biden is weaponizing the department of justice to take out his top political foe. which of course would be donald trump next year in the general election where trump to be the nominee. biden himself has maintained his silence on this and is pointing to the bright line that he and his white house have always pledged to maintain between their efforts and those of the

department of justice. >> jonathan and tim miller, thanks to both of you. detained in russia. an influential american musician and critic of moscow's censorship being held. what does the u.s. know about his case? you're watching "andrea mitchell reports." this is msnbc. watching nd"areal reports. this is msnbc. . break it down candace. they got world class bakers to develop their tastiest bread yet. this truly makes the subway series a dream team. you know about that chuck. yeah, i was the bread of that team too. try the subway series menu. their tastiest refresh yet. for too long, big oil companies have bought off politicians so they can get away with ripping us off. that's changing now. joe biden passed a plan to jumpstart clean energy production in america. it's creating good jobs that can't be outsourced and will lower energy costs. $1800. that's how much a new report says the inflation reduction act could save just the average american family on energy costs. [narrator] learn how the inflation reduction act will save you money.

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heightened tensions between moscow, or heightening the tensions. american musician, michael travis leak. he's accused now of running a drug dealing business. you can see him in a moscow jail in cage in a courtroom. this video shows him denying the charges but nbc news could not verify when the video was made or whether he was under duress when it was recorded. >> i do not believe what i've been accused of because i don't know what i've been accused of. >> he was interviewed by the late anthony boar dane in 2015. this is their exchange. listen when a microphone in the interview failed. >> it's the kgb. they're blocking the signal. i'm quite sure you've had someone on your tail. >> he was not shy about criticizing the russian spies. joining me now is ali in london.

just moments ago, the secretary of state was asked about this because there was a whole question of whether there was any consular contacts that you can recall when evan was taken. it was quite a while before he was seen by anyone from the embassy. this is what secretary blinken had to say just now. >> seeking to learn more about the apparent detention of travis leake and we're working to be not only in touch with him and to have consular access but also with his family. my number one priority as secretary of state is the safety and security of americans abroad. >> as you know, we've got of course "the wall street journal" reporter and also paul whelan, who has been there for so many years. and was convicted. so, there's, there's very little

help in terms of what we're getting back and forth from moscow on this. >> that's right, andrea. you know, as we know, drug charges are very serious in russia and then when they get an american as well, that becomes more problematic that has they're being used as political tools. what we know about this case is they have detained the music producer of drug charges. the court claimed he's organized the sale of drugs to young people. he faces charges of production and distribution of drugs which carry a sentence of up to 20 years in prison and state media said he's been accused of selling methadrone and that a court in moscow has ordered him to be held for two months in pretrial detention. there's another person we

haven't mentioned. mark fogle who was arrested there on drugs charges. they found marijuana in his suitcase as he was going back to russia. a 16-year sentence in one of the notorious penal colonies in russia. >> mark has said that is medical marijuana. they're ignoring that and he is not actually been judged as wrongfully detained yet officially by the state department but they say they are trying to get him out. but all of these cases are creating a huge problem for the u.s. as the state department tries to do what they can through the embassy in moscow. thank you very much. thanks. let's bring in admiral james. there's a special envoy who does meet regularly with the families. a lot of pressure on the white house to do more. what do you think putin's motivation here is in detaining another american?

>> i think it's pretty clear. let's face it. moscow has no qualms in simply snapping up americans wherever and whenever they can. of course, the most famous recently was the case of brittney griner, wnba basketball player caught with a tiny amount of probably medicinally intended some kind of drug going through the moscow airport. and i think this is of a piece with that. you know, you could just hear the frustration in blinken's voice because he knows this is going to be another long, hard negotiating slog with the russians and it's all about the bargaining chips for putin. >> and let's turn to ukraine because we see the start of what i think you would agree what is the beginning of the counteroffensive. we're seeing american armored vehicles on the battlefield for the first time.

what do you think, well, in erm terms of the goal, is crimea the real target here? is that the holy grail for zelenskyy? >> that would be the right term. i think certainly that would be the ultimate objective and a blow to the heart of putin, who would stake so much of his reputation on this false mythology that crimea is some kind of sacred portion of mother russia. i think a more modest goal and one quite attainable is going to be for all that armor and there are hundreds if not thousands of armored tanks and carriers, you're going to see those appear on the battlefield in the next two to three weeks. they're going to drive it straight at the black sea and crack the land bridge in between crimea and russia. that's going to present enormous problems for putin. i am very optimistic about the ukrainian chances of doing that.

that will put them in a very strong position as negotiations hopefully come to pass later on this year. >> how serious do you think that prigozhin's criticism is of the defense leaders in moscow and is this kind of dissent creating any challenge to putin's leadership? >> i don't think it is going to create a challenge for putin because putin, the master spy himself, devotes so much of his energy to maintaining control to all the different levers of power. i think putin is kind of encouraged prigozhin up to a point in this regard because it helps him balance factions around his immediate circle. prigozhin, frankly, has a 50,000-person army surrounding him. he would be a hard target for the general, the chief of defense and the minister of

defense. so don't look for any changes at the top anytime soon. >> and briefly, what are you hearing from our allies, especially members of five eyes and five closest allies about how they feel about this trump indictment and those pictures out of mar-a-lago of defense information and classified documents? >> yeah, the word outrage comes to mind. this is so far beyond the pale of anything we've seen in terms of mishandling classified materials by a president of the united states who sees everything. so our allies look at this as a significant breach. not just of our own protocols, but of theirs. >> to be continued. great to see you. coming up next, spy secrets. new details on another front. cuba. we'll talk about whether cuba is expanding its spying against the united states when we come back. e united states when we come back.

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leaving a void for them to fill. blinken talked about the efforts to spy from cuba. just moments ago. >> the strategy begins with did diplomacy. we've engaged governments that are considering hosting prc basis at high levels. exchanged information with them. our diplomatic efforts have sloughed down this effort by the prc. it's something we're carefully monitoring and taking steps to counter. >> dan is joining me now. ever since "the wall street journal" first broke it on thursday that a major contract was being discussed and i've confirm that had reporting independently, but it was denied by the national security council on this program. by john kirby. when i asked a follow up, it was just a flat denial rather than,

it was a very carefully worded denial. then on saturday in you're reporting with the team, the nsc issued a clarifying statement. >> that's right. really a reversal. they said it was inaccurate initially then they said it was actually something that's been there for years. that there's been this base for years, since 2019, that they inherited the problem. it's interesting because it's similar to how they phrased the situation with the supply balloon. when that happened, they said we inherited this chinese had beeng these surveillance balloons for years prior to ars coming into office. they're opening themselves up to accusations that they're playing these things down because they want these talks to happen and lincoln, of course, schedule to go to beijing later this month. >> in fact, very, very soon.

in fact, we were told in a matter of weeks. this is basically don't blame us, we inherited this problem, and let's not -- the subject we think is maybe let's not mess up a relationship with china right now at a critical time. >> that's the criticism they're facing they'll reject that. it's a difficult situation. they want to bring down the temperatures. >> for very good reasons. >> on the other hand, there's this risk that perhaps they don't kind of draw a line with china when some of these incidents happen, whether it's a plane flying too close to our plane, et cetera. >> exactly. dan de luce, all over the story. thanks. trump making history. a former president running for

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moment in american history. joining me now, nbc news presidential historian michael beschloss. so great to have you here. mr. trump can run for the white house while facing these charges, right? >> he can. >> there's the precedent of eugene debs, i guess. >> 1920. he ran for office and he was actually in jail. he was not elected president, so he don't know whether he could have served from jail which is something people are talking about right now.

andrea, i'm so glad we're doing it this way. i think people are going to g get so numb to what's going on, they will complete how completely out of the american experience what we're seeing right now is. just as you're saying. ex-president indicted on serious federal charges arraigned tomorrow. he's the front-runner of one of the two major parties in american life. this morning, as garrett haake reported just at the beginning of the show, donald trump on social media has now threatened his successor, joe biden, with a special prosecutor as one of the first things he'd do if he gets re-elected. and there are domestic terrorists all over the place even threatening violence. any of those things would be unusual in american history. we've now got a confluence, and all i'm saying is, as we watch all this, let us not become so inured to this that we don't

realize what an extraordinary and, in some ways, terrible situation this is. >> until now, the most recent historic example of a president in trouble and having to resign, in fact, was richard nixon. >> right. >> you've said that trump is nixon on steroids. how so? >> well, because nixon at least had some sense of shame. he was a lawyer. he had some limits. he resigned when he thought it was impossible for him to win a senate trial and an impeachment trial. again, i never thought, andrea, you and i would be here, and here a boasting about the great qualities of richard nixon. but look at all the things that did not happen. he did not come to the point of being indicted and arraigned as donald trump has. he didn't insight domestic terrorists around the country, and some hostile foreign leaders, by the way, to help him not only in his current travail

but in the election next year. this is so far different from nixon that we look at nixon as the benchmark for this, but nixon may be 7% of what we're seeing right now. >> it strikes me that on january 6th, 1961, richard nixon in the senate as vice president helped to count the electoral college votes electing jfk when it was arguably a stolen election. >> absolutely, so he thought. i think i would not, but people would argue it might have been. 60 years later to that day, just as you're saying, donald trump not only did not say the election is over, i have lost, president elect biden. he staged a coup d'etat to try to over dloe the democracy and

end our system of elections. there's so much that has gone on in the last seven years and especially the last couple years we're at risk of thinking this is somehow normal, especially young people. it certainly is not. >> that's why you have to come back often, michael beschloss, to remind us, this is not normal. thank you for being with us today. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." remember, follow us online, on facebook and twitter. @mitchellreports. "chris jansing reports" starts right now. good day. i'm chris jansing live at msnbc h. formal charges and a first-of-its-kind political fund-raiser all in one day. that's what's away waiting former president donald trump tomorrow in florida. he's lashing out at joe biden and his family, vowing to assign